I have grown to think that there are supernatural novels that work for casual readers of the genre and those that work for those readers that concentrate on horror and dark fiction. This novel was for the former. Is there such a thing as a horror “cozy” like there are for mysteries? If so, this is a horror cozy. If it was a movie it would be rated PG. Rayne is a good writer and I didn’t dislike the book. I don’t really have a complaint other than this story was too bland for my tastes. ( )

I stumbled on this author by chance and had to read one of her books. The Silence is the third to feature Nell West and Michael Flint. I do prefer to read in order but my local library didn't have the first one, so I jumped straight in with the third. My way of thinking is that if I don't enjoy this one I probably won't like the rest of the series.

Enjoy it I did. This book for me was a really enjoyable read. Nell West is invited by an aunt to catalogue valuables in Stilter House in Derbyshire. The house however has plenty of residents ghosts, and a few legends to go with it. Nell and Michael together uncover the history of the house and try to lay the ghosts to rest, although Nell is sceptical about all of that.

A lot of the story about the house and past residents is uncovered in diary, letter, journal form with varoius characters giving their accounts. I really enjoyed this and theses were my favourite part of the book.

The story is a ghostly tale, classic haunted house. The story however was dark and fearsome but did have some creepy moments.

I liked Nell and Michael and will get around to getting more books in the series. If I don't read them in order I really don't think it will make much difference.

This book was spooky and fun to read. A light easy read with plenty of creepy moments. Glad I have discovered this author. ( )

Didn't really gel with this book! Long winded for what it was. The events leading up the haunting were intriguing as usual with Rayne but the modern day events didn't quite match up to the level of 'spookyness' that she was aiming to create. ( )

I enjoyed this more than the second book in this series but less then the first. I loved the setting, the mystery, the interactions between the characters - all of that was really well done. What irritated me in this installment was Nell and her chronic case of Scullyism (as in agent Scully X Files). One would think that after her experiences in the last two books, even if she was the most stubborn of sceptics, Nell would at least possess an open mind regarding ghosts. However, over and over again throughout this book she insists she doesn't believe in ghosts. In previous books Nell has spoken to them, seen them, had her daughter kidnapped by one and been attacked herself but she doesn't believe in ghosts? Even in this book, in one sentence she says "I don't believe in ghosts" and in the next (literally the next sentence) Nell states she believes she was just attacked by a woman who died a century ago - cue head scratching. These aren't plot holes, these are plot chasms. So, as much as I enjoyed the book, this issue really irritated me ( )

This is the third in a series, but the author makes the story easily accessible to readers who've not read found the first two.

Nell West, widowed mother of a daughter, goes to Stilter House, in Derbyshire, England, to catalogue antiques in a house recently left vacant after the death of one of her deceased husband's aunts. Nell and her daughter, Beth, go on the journey together, staying at Stilter House--and, of course, the power is out--so that Beth can share in what, long ago, was a place her new-dead father enjoyed as a boy, during school vacations. Almost immediately Beth meets Esmond, a young mute boy who plays upon the grand piano in the drawing room and communicates with Beth, and only Beth, silently . . . and Nell gradually realizes her husband, as a child, also knew Esmond.

Swirling around this main story are letters between the surviving aunts of Nell's husband, one of whom is convinced Nell should not stay in the house, tho' her objections are cryptic. Other letters comprise whole chapters, these written by the man who designed and built Stilter House, early in the 20th century. All these are critical to Nell's eventual understanding of the mysterious sounds and frightening images that fill Stilter House and, in fact, appear to menace her and Beth.

I love ghost stories, but this one doesn't work for several reasons. First, while Rayne produces some very nicely creepy moments, particularly a dark figure seen by Nell outside the house on several occasions, her attempt to tie the ghosts together in a meaningful, emotionally satisfying manner is unsuccessful. The denouement feels clunky, forced, as if Rayne was never able fully to embrace any of her ghosts but had to do something with them to end the story. Certainly I, as reader, never felt I was given sufficient reason to care what bound each ghost to Stilter House.

Second, although epistolary novels can be a great fun--Dracula, anyone?--Rayne doesn't succeed here. The enormous swathe of lengthy letters in The Silence (actually, records of interviews between the builder and his doctor) left me feeling Rayne simply could not figure out any other way of introducing the backstory to her readers. These long and unlikely letters simply reduce tension and slow the plot. Worse, they're dull.

Third, Nell is properly skeptical at first of the strange happenings at Stilter House. Do ghosts reside here? Are she and Beth experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations? Yet, long after everyone else has begun to accept the reality of the Stilter ghosts, and after she has seen at least two ghosts (more than once) and heard them, Nell persists in questioning the supernatural possibilities, another authorial stumble. After all, this is a character who has already experienced the supernatural (despite a healthy skepticism) in two previous books. Would she really be as slow to consider she has done so again? I was perplexed that Rayne asked readers to accept such an obdurate protagonist who, as written, approaches Stilter House's spirits with the same lack of sense as the stereotypical hero/heroine who launches into a creepy attic/basement, where strange things have been seen and heard, armed only with a flashlight and a conviction those glowing eyes are only mice.

I would have given this book two stars but for the occasional creepy moment. Fans of good ghost stories don't have many writers to whom they can turn, particularly if they want a touch of romance that doesn't involve the hero/heroine falling in love with a ghost. Rayne, alas, isn't going to fill the void. One would do better to seek out Yrsa Sigardardottir's I Remember You (2014), John Harwood's The Seance, or, better still, reread the often very creepy, if now dated, ghost stories written by Barbara Mertz (under the pen name, Barbara Michaels). Titles include Ammie, Come Home, The House of Many Shadows, The Crying Child, and so on. Any one of these, despite dated cultural references, runs rings around the ghost stories written by Sarah Rayne. ( )